Okay, a short enough question to chew on for a bit. The core of this argument between JoAnne Dobson (UUP) and Alastair Ross (DUP) is that the former wants to change the law to make organ donation a default position which you and your relatives can opt out of, whilst Mr Ross’s proposed amendment would set it back to opt in system. So, for the moment leaving aside all the politicking and looking at the core question, what is wrong …
I don’t have strong views one way or the other on the recent judgement against the local health Minister. On one level, what’s wrong with levelling up with the rest of the UK? However, as Kilsally has pointed out in the past, the UK position is the exception rather than the rule. In fact the Irish Blood Transfusion Service goes out of its way to explain why it is not a discriminatory practice based on identity but based on the risk …
Well the mood music at the Fine Gael’s National Conference was pretty upbeat. They reckoned that offering free medical cards for the under fives was going to frame the post budget debate, and they weren’t wrong. Most striking aspect of the opposition’s problem (mostly FF’s) was in trying to land a single major blow on the intricate tracework of the Michael and Brendan show yesterday. They reduced the target somewhat by restructuring repayments on the deficit less painful. Medical cards …
The tragic case of Sarah Ewart’s opens up another round of discussions on the appropriateness of current abortion laws, both and south of the border. In this respect both jurisdictions on the island have much more in common than in Britain where the liberal 1967 abortion law legalises a woman’s right to choose in almost every circumstance. In Ireland the guidelines that exist are often not well understood, even by those at the heart of the operation of the state’s …
I cannot think of another polity in which a discussion on the increase in the uptake of free school meals could almost entirely avoid any direct reference to the possible corresponding increase in child poverty. I say possible, because in yesterday’s private member’s debate on free school meals was based on barely any data concerning the drivers behind the increase beyond a ministerial o extend free meals to independent sector (affecting about 700 pupils) The debate was scheduled to start at …
A few days ago it was revealed that Health Minister Edwin Poots is to fritter away more department money in his attempts to prevent the extension of adoption rights to gay and same-sex (and un-married) couples by taking the case to the Supreme Court. The Green Party leader, Steven Agnew, had Edwin Poots clarify legal costs for defending his (Poots’) stance on the lifetime ban on gay men donating blood. Poots gave that as £37,112 (net of VAT). When asked to provide …
Welcome news… “As part of this review, we have identified a group of 22 young people who may be at risk from child sexual exploitation and are seeking to identify those who may have committed crimes against them.” Identifying victims is not the same as prosecution, and it certainly does not mean that for the victims themselves their ordeal is over. This File On 4 programme broadcast earlier this year gave a harrowing account of some of those experiences from the …
Just a reflection or two on the issues of Mick’s post. When you see it written down so starkly out of the mouth of one Cardinal Burke from the real life perspective of the Roman Curia, the effect is breathtaking. Will Catholics now rush to contradict him? I wonder. Many people seem to want to defy the Church silently. and this is mightily frustrating for the Church establishment. It’s as if they’re being ignored. More and more Irish Catholicism is becoming a private …
This is well worth noting before it passes over us, on the question of abortion in the south. James P Mackey is visiting professor at the school of religions and theology at Trinity College. And he’s been looking back at some of his old Catholic textbooks from Maynooth: The Roman Catholic hierarchy has formally stated its position on abortion by declaring definitively that the direct and intentional killing of the unborn is immoral. Yet, my dog-eared old Maynooth textbook tells …
So last week it was the Health Minister’s turn to get burned. Yet at the end of the week, it is not at all clear as to how the Health Trusts came to interpret ‘at least 50%’ of all Trust residential care homes as 100%, in the case of the Northern Trust, over the longer term. On one level the Minister is getting it in the neck because of his own aggressive and highly populist positioning when Michael McGimpsey was …
And the abortion debate rumbles on …. Yesterday Health Minister James Reilly denied that it was ever being proposed that the opinion of six doctors would be stipulated in legislation covering abortion where there was a risk of suicide. This morning, Fionnan Sheahan published details of the draft legislation: • “One obstetrician and two psychiatrists have jointly certified that, in their reasonable opinion, there is a real and substantial risk of loss of the pregnant woman’s life from self-destruction and …
So it falls to Sinn Fein, alone of all the major parties to do the right thing on an amendment to Stormont’s Criminal Justice Bill, which as Philip Bradfield notes “would effectively forbid abortions from being carried out in Northern Ireland, except within the National Health Service (NHS)”. They alone have the power to raise a petition of concern to effectively block the move in the legislative Assembly. It certainly would have suited the SDLP if Sinn Fein had ‘come …
So Gerry Adams is getting to that stage of life where health becomes an issue. Early sixties can be a tough time for men, and in the last few months, he’s had two minor procedures. What makes both news is that neither of them were conducted in the Republic, and they raise more questions than answers. For instance, as Fiach Kelly reports: The party says Mr Adams, who insists he only takes home the average industrial wage of €33,000, paid …
NORTHERN Ireland is to get its first abortion clinic next week. In one of the biggest stories of our generation – and one which will unite hardline Protestants and Catholics – it’s reported that Marie Stopes will open for business in Belfast next Thursday, with the help of former PUP leader Dawn Purvis. The organisation says it will operate within the framework of the law here, but that will do little to assuage the anger of opponents, who will see …
It’s been a good week to be in opposition in Irish politics. Pretty distressing if you’re trying to keep it together inside Government. Billy Kelleher of Fianna Fail may have been the one who first flushed out Roisin Shortall… but Mary Lou’s been reaping the benefits too… So what’s the issue? Well, to start at the beginning, the problem relates to the implementation of a strategy in primary health care. Interestingly, the strategy dates from 2001 (PDF), and was the …
At the start of this month the Health and Social care Board released a report into paediatric congenital cardiac services in Belfast. The report was by a team of highly respected experts in the field chaired by Professor Sir Ian Kenny. The panel made a number of important conclusions: 3 ii: It is the surgical element of the service that provokes concern. iii: The panel has not identified any immediate safety concerns presented by the current arrangements v: However, the …
Some contrasting reports to note on health and well-being in Northern Ireland. We knew in February this year that “the people of Northern Ireland are the happiest in the United Kingdom”. That’s by their own subjective assessment, of course. And a more detailed breakdown of the data suggests you might feel even happier living in some areas of Scotland. As long as you’re employed, older, and in good health… Of more significance is the study by Professor Mike Tomlinson– “War, peace and suicide: The case …
Right, I have no personal interest in pushing this line (‘if you’ll forgive the pun’). In other words I don’t do illegal drugs. That may be a result of the happy accident of never having really smoked and on the few occasions I’ve been offered canibis (a long long long time ago), it made only me splutter… A second deterrent was the connection it implies to a vast underworld that survives and gets by in an unregulated and brutal criminal …
Two articles in local newspapers this week show a remarkable similarity. On Monday, the News Letter published a story (also in Coleraine Times) following up Ian Paisley Jnr’s statement in Westminster Hall last week about the future of A&E at the Causeway Hospital. A tip off pointed to Tuesday’s Belfast Telegraph website which also carries the story. While a significant portion of both articles rely on statements made by Ian Paisley Jnr MP in the House of Commons – available …
A couple of weeks ago the assembly had a debate on organ donation in Northern Ireland and discussed the option of presumed consent as a mechanism to increase organ donation rates. Edwin Poots called for a public debate on the issue. The issues in this are complex. Presumed consent may substantially increase the number of organs available for transplantation since although a majority of people state a willingness to donate their organs following death only a minority are registered donors. …
